I *believe* the Mary Murphy Mill was built by an investors group named Golf in the mid-1890s but I need to do some digging to find the dates. I believe it started smaller than the image seen in at least one online DPL image and grew to be quite large. In that DPL image the Lady Murphy and Pat Murphy enclosed ore bins sit above the mill on the other side of the DL&G mainline.
There are references to the mill and to the Mary Murphy, Lady Murphy and Iron Chest (later, 1890s, Pat Murphy) in the newspapers and some in Dan Edward's documentary history V1. It has taken a lot of digging and cross-referencing to figure things out to a rough understanding! I don't have the mill's construction date off the top of my head, will look. There was a sudden burst of activity around all these mines starting in 1886, with spurs, tramways, ore bins and powerhouses being built over the course of two years. Then they go quiet, and the track at Lady Murphy is noted in 1890 and 1891 as being used to house a work train. Likely on the original siding there when it was a water stop. Then in 1892 McBride gets the lease on the Lady Murphy, builds the Pawnee and things take off for his mine and the Mary Murphy for at least 3-5 years. An idea of how good this business was: McBride, a significant mining man, built the Pawnee for $10K in 1892 and within a month the processing proceeds paid the investment off! At that point Alpine Tunnel had been closed a year and would remain closed for at least 2 more--St Elmo/Romley traffic kept the branch alive.
There are also newspaper references to the other mines between Hancock and Romley, notably the Flora Bell, Allie Bell and the Rarus Warrior (note it is spelled "Rarus" not "Raris" as Ferrell did in his South Park book). Also, I have some reason to believe that the Allie Bell and Rarus may have somehow been either the same or corporately-linked mines.
I've looked at this area for years but only in the past two months really dug into it. Using the books, the online CO newspapers, the CnSng forum discussions and period documents I've just begun scratching the surface! I really got excited when I realized that a layout, based just on the Alpine (Fisher) to Hancock section would be a fantastic layout--great scenery, operations and equipment. Especially during the early 1890s when the Tunnel was closed, meaning you wouldn't need to have dozens of coal cars and engines just to model the coal drags from, and the empties to, Baldwin. Just the mixed or a freight drag, plus moving cars from the mines to the mills at St Elmo.
Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 06/14/2022 10:25AM by degg13.